Out of Odda
by JeSuisUnePomme
Summary: DenNor. Human/Fantasy AU. Lukas had been told many fairytales as a child growing up. Some he knew to be nothing more than stories; some, he had always fancied to hold some truth; and many of the creatures he counted as his friends - but mermaids he had always chalked up to Disney. Until he met Matthias under the laughing night skies that loved to mock his existence.
1. Chapter 1

**Out of Odda**

 **One**

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 **Author Note:** Here's a little thing I dreamed up.

 **DISCLAIMER:** Please note that Odda is a _real_ place in Norway. I have never been to Odda, let alone Norway, and all my information has come from a few, random Google searches. Please treat the Odda in this story as an AU to its real counterpart, as it will be riddled with errors if you were to compare this story's version and real life. Nevertheless, feel free to look it up on the map to see what sort of location I envision this story taking place!

I do not own Hetalia or its characters. However, this story is my own creation.

I hope you enjoy this adventure! -Apple xo

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Lukas did not often find himself so desperate to escape the confines of his house, so when the feeling to flee overtook him, he wasn't exactly sure how to respond. He stood, wavering in the front hall of his house, shaking and unsure of what to do. He was in no real distress; his brother, Emil, was quietly reading by the fire with his stocking feet up on the coffee table, toes wriggling.

Emil turned a page and Lukas flinched, lurching for his heavy coat and woollen scarf hanging together on the wall by the door. He slipped into his sneakers and called over his shoulder, "I'm going out," before wrenching the door open and stumbling into the chilly, autumn air. He heard his brother hum in response before the door closed behind him.

He buttoned up his coat and adjusted his scarf, glancing at the sky and the pale sun sliding lower into the sky, descending on the mountains across the water from his house. His breath fogged into the air; it smelled like sea salt, frost, and the smoke that curled from the fireplaces in cozy homes, the logs half collapsed on themselves and glowing with living embers, the air smelled like _home_. He contemplated going back inside for some gloves, but shrugged the feeling away before turning down the road at a brisk walk, stuffing his hands deep into his coat pockets for warmth.

He wasn't sure where he was going, but he found himself drawn to the water, moving along the edge of it until his little town was nothing more than twinkling lights at his back. The restlessness was consuming him from the inside out, driving him forward blindly until his feet splashed into the water and his shins knocked against a small rowboat. He blinked dazedly down, surprised at his predicament, his eyes having been trained on the horizon for an unmeasurable amount of time.

Without thinking, he untied the boat and climbed inside, shoving off of the shore. He removed his shoes and poured out the water, resting them at the end of the boat before nestling down into the bottom. He stared up at the sky, listening to the lapping of the water on the wooden sides. He did not bother to check for oars before pushing off, drifting towards the centre of the fjord. A sense of calm descended upon him, easing his earlier anxiety and restlessness as he stared up at the darkening evening sky. His breathing came easier, the weight in his chest lifted, and his limbs popped into place as he relaxed. The chill of the breeze off the water was broken by the sides of the boat and he felt quite cozy as he lay, hands folded at his belly, listening to the water beneath him, gently rocking him.

He meant only to close his eyes for a second; when he next opened them, the sky was dark and stars were little little pinpricks in the sky above him, the cool night air had frozen his nose beyond feeling. He started when there was the distinct sound of knocking on the side of the boat like it was a door. His breath caught and he held it, waiting to see if he had heard correctly – perhaps it was nothing more than some flotsam in the water bumping alongside him. He nearly cried out in surprise when the sound came again, very distinct and deliberate knocking.

Very slowly he eased himself up on his elbows, craning his neck to peer over the side of the little boat; his town was nothing more than a handful of glittering lights on the horizon and he could not tell where the fjord waters ended and the shadows of the mountains and cliffs began. In the gloom he saw a pair of hands rise up over the side of the boat and grasp onto it. With wide eyes he watched as a soaking wet, blonde head and glowing sky-blue eyes rose up over the side and blinked at him. Their corners crinkled in what could only be a wide smile before the rest of the face popped up, dragging the boat sideways as the person held on, holding himself up and out of the water.

Lukas gripped the wooden plank seat near his head and hauled himself to a fully sitting position, shimmying as far away from the person at the side of the boat and hoping to restore the balance before he tipped into the inky, freezing waters. The person briefly lost purchase, sending the boat rocking and water splashing up on the sides, before the hands returned and steadied, pulling themselves, a man, out of the water again. His upper body was entirely bare, but he did not seem to be bothered by the chill of the waters or wind curling around both of them as they stared at each other.

"Where did you come from?" Lukas finally managed to choke out, squinting along the shore for another boat and listening for calls of worried friends nearby – this person had to have come from somewhere, but there were no other boats on the water that he could see. The stranger lifted himself further out of the water, the boat tipping dangerously on its side and water splashed in; Lukas scrambled to balance the weight, his heart hammering in his chest. "Be careful! You're going to capsize it!" the stranger only grinned wider.

He opened his mouth to say something, but instead of words, a terrible noise escaped his lips. It sounded choked, warbled, and distant, like Lukas was trying to hear what someone was saying on the other side of a roaring waterfall. The stranger seemed just as confused and he quickly snapped his mouth shut, covering it with one of his hands, his eyes mildly panicked. He hesitantly tried again, lowing his hand and opening his mouth, then he slapped his hand to his lips when the same sound resulted. He seemed to consider this, Lukas staring on in morbid fascination – should he pull him into the boat? He must be freezing. Why was he so unconcerned by being in the water? How were his eyes glowing like that? And most importantly: _where were his clothes_?

The stranger suddenly let go of the boat and disappeared over the side, Lukas had to throw himself across it in order to save himself from being dumped into the water behind him. He gripped the sides and carefully looked over. He could just barely see the man sink down until only his glowing eyes broke the surface, bubbles rising up around his mouth. He rose up again, grinning, and motioned for Lukas to come closer. He cocked his head at the stranger in the water, trying to decipher what he was getting at.

"Are you ill?" he asked, eyebrows knitting together as the man kept motioning for him to come closer, then putting one of his ears to the water. "Do you need to get into the boat? I can take you to the hospital in- _whoa_!" the man reached forward and started tugging Lukas towards the water. Lukas held on to the side of the boat and pulled back, trying to escape the stranger's iron-tight grasp. "What are you-" they struggled for a moment, Lukas momentarily forgetting how to breathe when a tail rose up out of the water behind the man and splashed down, the force mixed with Lukas' surprise was all the strange man needed to rip him from the safety of the boat and pull him under the icy surface.

The water roared in his ears and he cried out, his voice bubbling around him as he kicked for purchase, his feet finding nothing beneath him but frozen emptiness. His coat was heavy while dry, but now wet it was dragging him down, his scarf tangling around his throat and eyes while he battled to break for the surface. Strong hands gripped his arms and pushed him upwards, Lukas gasped loudly for air, clawing at the sky above him for help before he was pulled under again. The stars did not save him, they only silently observed while he was pulled further down, their light being choked out by the water around him and Lukas squeezed his eyes shut tight. His heart drumming in his chest and pulsing in his ears was drowned out by the frozen, deafening silence pressing into him. He wanted to scream, to cry out, but he held his breath silently and weakly fought against the strange hands that gripped him, keeping him from sinking further and rising up.

A long, clear musical note rang through the water, piercing him right to his core and sending a shiver down his spine that was not from the cold enveloping him. He stilled, those hands released him and he was left floating in the blackness; he opened his eyes and we met by the stranger's glowing blue ones, illuminating his smiling face and his open mouth as he spoke. His words did not make sense to Lukas, but they no longer sounded garbled like in the open air. Now, they were strong and clear, like singing, echoing through the water in a haunting melody. His breath would have been whisked away from him listening to the strange, eerie song had he not been submerged in the water. His lungs began to burn and he kicked for the surface. The man reached for him and pushed him up until his face met with frozen air and he breathed again. He begged whatever gods he could think of that he would not be pulled under again – he didn't want to die like this, with the silent stars the only witness to his struggle.

Death often crossed his mind, but always in the daylight and never in the frozen fjords of his homeland. He had always considered himself unafraid of the inevitable, death was chasing everyone and to resist was to fight a losing battle. Death had always been a companion of his, a silent observer in his life, closely following him around just out of reach. It had never bothered him until now, while he felt it was sneaking up on him an an unexpected way. Drowning at the hands of an unknown creature in the dark was not how he envisioned his demise and it startled him, how hard he fought against his old friend. He had had many conversations with death, and Lukas always felt that dying was promised to him later, at home in his bed or at the very least in a hospital. That was where he would go, not here, and not like this.

The man, the creature, rose up beside him and Lukas clung to him, those strange hands helped hold his head steady above the water despite the weight of his clothing; his boat slid out of his grasp, rocking in the waves he was creating in his struggle to remain afloat and drifted further away from him. Lukas was afraid.

"W-what are y-you?" he asked, his teeth beginning to relentlessly chatter. The stranger said nothing, he could not in the open air it seemed, but smiled kindly at him. He felt the water currents beneath his kicking feet shift as a silken tail moved beside him, sending both of them rocketing for the darkened shoreline, boat forgotten. Lukas coughed as water splashed up in his face, down his throat, and into his eyes.

He was shaking with adrenaline, fear, and bitter cold. He could not help but cry out in relief when his feet struck solid ground, and he wriggled out of the strangers grasp, clamouring for the shore. He collapsed onto it, his legs still in the water and he rolled onto his back, breathing heavy.

The stars overhead glittered, mocking him, shining with amusement. They knew all along he would not die tonight. He scowled at them while he caught his breath, his soaking clothes clinging to him and freezing stiffly while he lay still half in the water.

He felt something nudge his foot, but he chose to ignore it. Surely this was some strange dream and not reality. He must have fallen asleep in the boat, he needed to figure out how to wake up. Unless he _had_ died... he let his eyes drift closed, blocking out the laughing skies and he focused on the pounding of his heart and his quickened, burning breaths. His nose was so frozen he could not smell the salt or trees on the air. He could not feel his fingertips as he scratched at the muddy shore beneath him.

No, he was still alive.

He spluttered as a splash of water was doused across his face and he struggled to sit up, wiping away the water from his eyes.

The strange man – creature – was dragging himself out of the water, reaching a hand to touch Lukas' leg, a low keening noise escaping his frowning lips.

His flaxen hair was shaggy, dripping from the frigid waters, hanging into his eyes and around his long, pointed ears which were decorated in piercings made up of bits of bone and painted shells. His sky-blue eyes, glowing in the night like a cat's, flashed when he moved, catching the light of the stars and moon that had risen up over the mountains and was sitting fat on their outlines, casting the landscape in an eerie, milky light.

The man had gasping gills on his neck, lines of three on each side, like thread-thin scars, reddening around the edges. His outstretched hand, now clinging to Lukas' soaking pants, were webbed between each of the fingers, his nails long and pointed. His skin was pearly, almost translucent, and shimmered with each of his movements as he made his way closer to Lukas.

There was a tail curling out of the water and over his bare, human torso. It was long and silvery grey-blue, like the sky in the very early morning of a clear day. The fins on the end caught in the moonlight and glittered as they dipped into the inky fjord and flicked forward, raining water down on Lukas' face.

Lukas had been told many fairytales as a child growing up. Some he knew to be nothing more than stories; some, he had always fancied to hold some truth; and many of the creatures he counted as his friends, like lumbering trolls or hidden, elf-like people that watched from their stone houses or from around the trees in the forest. Mermaids, however, he had always chalked up to Disney. There were no tales that he could recall mentioning mermaids in the fjords near where he lived. Mermaids lived on the pages of books in warm seas, in coral reefs, daring each other to swim out into the open ocean where the white sand beneath their tails gave way to darkened depths. As far as he was concerned, they did not live in the nearly 3 kilometre wide fjord.

And yet, Lukas forced himself to stare into the glowing eyes of seeming one such creature, rising out of the water on his forearms with a silly grin spread wide across his face; Lukas collapsed back onto the ground as the merman crawled closer to him, sliding further out of the water until he was laying on the muddy shore next to him. He reached a webbed hand out and brushed the hair out of Lukas' eyes. The merman had a handsome face with high cheekbones and an elegant nose; he looked so _human_ aside from the glowing of his eyes and the gasping gills on his neck. Blonde lashes blinked drops of water away as he stared right back at Lukas, studying his own features. Those strange fingertips with sharpened nails gently brushed along Lukas' face, tracing its outline from his temple to his chin, as if this was the first time he had seen a human. The merman became fascinated with the shape of Lukas' ears and keened quietly as he leaned closer to look at them. Lukas held still while the creature poked and prodded him, exploring his head and playing with his freezing, platinum hair. The merman finally stilled, satisfied with his inspection, and leaned over Lukas, their noses almost touching. He rest one of his webbed hands on Lukas' cheek, the other grabbed one of Lukas' own and placed it on his face. His skin was cool and felt like smoothed stone, the feeling finally returning to Lukas' fingertips as he traced small figure eights under the stranger's glowing eyes.

His breath would have hitched had he not been holding it.

" _Who_ are you?" he finally breathed out. His throat burned with his question, like the whispered words had clawed their way from his chest up his throat, finally escaping out his cracked lips. He knew _what_ he was, he had seen pictures in fairy books, but he didn't look like one would expect a mermaid to; he looked more wild with his flashing eyes, pointed ears, and clawed hands.

His focus snapped away from the smiling creature hovering over him when he heard the distinct sound of someone calling his name on the wind. A beam of light from a flashlight was sweeping along the shore, searching, edging closer. Lukas looked back to the creature, his smiling face having melted into one of panic. He pressed his forehead to Lukas' and brushed his fingertips gently along the curve of the top of his ear once more, before surging back towards the water, disappearing beneath its inky surface.

"Lukas?" He heard called; he did not bother to respond as he struggled to sit up, propping himself up on his elbows. He could not tear his eyes away from the spot where the creature had sank below the surface, rings of ripples reflecting the moonlight in the water was the only sign that the stranger had been there at all.

The flashlight fell upon Lukas' face, blinding him, and he winced.

"Oh my God, Lukas!" There was the sound of rustling fabric and heavy footsteps as someone scrambled down the steep embankment from the road to reach him. "Down here!" they called, "I've got him here!" Lukas could not tell who was kneeling beside him, he heard a faint reply from a familiar voice drift in on the wind. Warm hands fell to his shoulders and he slipped into darkness; the cold, the shock, the weariness took hold of him and ripped him away from his consciousness like a rug out from under his feet.

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 _To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Out of Odda**

 **Two**

 **AN:** GIANT thank you **Girlofthearts** , **the-nerd-of-fandom-stuff** , **miss-fiery, pianointhemiddleoftheocean,** and **do-you-hear-the-people-fuck** and everyone else who helped/offered to help me on Tumblr by engaging in conversation about mermaids to get my brain rolling for ideas on culture!

PS this chapter is short, but it won't be such a long wait for the next one.

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Matthias had heard a handful of legends about mermaids who established relationships with humans; however, they were all told in such a way that would frighten any small fry from swimming too close to the surface. Humans were depicted as terrible, flat-eared monsters who would capture unwary merfolk and peel the scales from their tails and eat them. Matthias' new human friend was nothing like he had expected. He did have strange, flat ears and he spoke with words that did not sound remotely like a song, but he seemed to be more afraid of Matthias than ready to _kill_ him. He had held still while Matthias explored his alien features, and he held his hand gently against Matthias' face.

The open air closed around his head and he descended towards the darkness in the water. It was comforting; the familiar chill and the light fading away behind him as he cut through the water like a dart, letting his fingertips bump along the sand and dirt and weeds of the fjord floor, perpetually angling down into the darkened depths.

Darkness did not frighten him. His eyes were well adjusted to living in low light, their glow was enough to illuminate himself for other merpeople to spot and to light up what was right in front of him. He did not have to fear the darkness because he knew, at a certain depth when you can no longer hear the hum of humans or the roar of boats, where the pressure was great enough to make his ears pop while they adjusted, the ground would open up and he would slip into the secret world of the merpeople.

It wasn't that secret, just cracks in the fjord floor and walls that would open up into pockets of inhabited spaces, lit up by glowing stones affixed to the ceilings of underwater caverns and glowing plants rooted on the floor. There were not many merpeople that lived in this particular arm of the fjord so far inland, it was mainly small groups of families that wished to escape the lifestyle large schools of mer that typically kept closer to open ocean. The further north or inland you went, the less mer you were likely to find. There were especially tough merfolk to live in the frigid northern waters of the arctic, but they kept to themselves and did not often associate with their southern cousins. The majority of schools that lived closer to the open ocean tended to migrate with the whales, following a ready food source, and escaping colder weather. Very few schools chose to stay committed to one spot, humans often getting too close to discovering their homes and putting their fry in danger.

Matthias gave an extra kick in his tail as he shot down, hands outstretched until his fingers brushed along the familiar stone that lead to the crack near his home. He found it and slid through, wriggling, until the space opened up and his eyes had to adjust to the sudden brightness. He hovered in the water for a moment, admiring the glowing and twinkling world around him – his home.

The main cavern was large, the ceiling was decorating in glowing stones and plants cascading towards the floor, swaying in the gentle currents that reached the enclosed space. There were jellies that had been bred to lazily drift around the top of the cavern, adding more glowing light, glitter, and to be decoration. The floor was lower than the crevice that Matthias had slipped through, sloping away from the crack and widening into the great hall. The entire floor space was decorated in patterns of white and deep navy shells, creating swirls that depicted the ebb and flow of tides and currents of the fjord arm in which their home was in. Along the edges of the hall were darkened doorways that had been carved out, covered in long strips of thick seaweed and decorated fishing nets. Near some doors were ropes strung with shells, beads, or trinkets that mer a family had collected from around the fjord floor, weighted by painted rocks. Matthias lived beyond one such doorway, his own decorated with many ropes strung with claimed treasures and pretty shells he'd traded for with other schools of mer. He was fascinated by humans and often went out collecting things they had misplaced or dropped in the water over the years. He had always been careful never to be seen by humans or get too close – until this night.

The hall was empty at this time of evening, all respected merfolk were resting in their homes. The hall was the heart of the mer culture. That is where small fry played and and where groups of mer would gather for feast and fellowship and song. The large caverns were the safe place where mer could gather and enjoy each other's company, to meet before swimming out on a hunt, or gather for lessons from the elders.

He had almost made it completely to his door at the far end of the hall when the seaweed was suddenly pushed back and a rather large, angry-looking merman filled the entire doorway. His shoulders were back and he was drawn to his full size, a very deep frown alighting his features. His pale blue eyes lit up his angled features, deepening his scowl and disapproval. Mathias should have anticipated that his elder brother, Berwald, would be waiting for him to return to their crevice. His pale, blonde hair was cut short, it barely curled away from his head, but it was long enough to reflect to soft glow from a jellyfish lazily drifting overhead. He had wide shoulders and a broad, muscled chest, which he preferred to keep bare of all decoration. The only piece of finery Berwald wore was a brown cord around his neck, tiny periwinkle, royal blue, and charcoal grey glass beads were strung around it in a repeating pattern, the cord was weighted down by a simple, silver coin. The side of the coin that faced out was engraved with the markings Matthias knew to represent the waters at the northern end of their fjord – another community of merfolk.

"Where've you been?" Berwald sang, his tone carrying the undercurrent of a threat. His song was soft, as to not awaken any of the neighbours, but loud enough to cut through the water and cause a shiver to run down Matthias' spine as he slowed to a stop in front of his brother.

"I went to look at the sky," Matthias sang back, choosing his notes carefully, hoping to mask his elation and excitement from his encounter with the strange and beautiful human. Berwald's frown seemed to deepen, but he did not comment, flicking his tail and moving aside for Matthias to enter their living space.

It was dark inside, the only light coming from a large glowing stone in the centre of the room. There were beds of kelp and soft sea plants woven into a nest-like shape for resting, one on each side of the shallow, carved-out cave. There was a human chest at the end of Matthias' that was filled with interesting rocks and shells and trinkets he had collected since he was a fry. Berwald's side of the room was neat and tidy, he kept very few personal treasures, the only thing he held dear he wore around his neck – marking him as claimed by another mer.

Each mer is given a necklace at birth, decorated in fine beads in family colours with a coin that named familiar waters on one side and their given name on the other. Matthias wore one around his neck: pale blue, deep blue, and sea green were the colours of the beads. He would give his necklace to his intended, should he find one, in exchange for their own and marking each other as claimed. They would wear each other's trinkets with the personal names facing inward, close to the heart.

Matthias refused to make eye contact with his brother as he settled into his nest, his eyes lit up the ceiling of their cave as he stared at it, deep in thought. He watched the ripples of the water play along the ceiling in the glow from the stone, watching patterns form and dissolve.

"Wha'happened?" Matthias twitched at the sudden voice and turned to his brother, who was curled in his nest, eyes open and focused on Matthias from across the cave. "I've seen you when you go to the surface; you are never this thoughtful after." Matthias wondered if he ought to feel offended by the comment, but decided to ignore it at the soothing, melodic tone in which Berwald sang at him.

"Have you ever met a human?" He regretted the question as soon as it slipped past his lips in tangled, awe-filled notes. Silence rose like a quickened tide in the cave and the water almost seemed to drop a few degrees. He should have known better than to ask Berwald about humans with such wonder braided into his music. Their mother had been fond of humans as a fry, but then she had been betrayed and cursed by a magical human. Their father had been the only mer to still claim her as a mate despite the curse, having fallen in love with her long before the incident. However, many merfolk would whisper behind their fins that marrying into cursed blood was what lead to his eventual his downfall. He had been a proud mer, an accomplished hunter, and well respected in their school. Only a few short years after Matthias had been born, he was strangled in fishing line and his body almost recovered by humans. Their mother had been overcome with grief and suffocated herself on the shore only a short year later, their community blaming their untimely deaths on the curse that clearly clung to their family like a disease.

Berwald and Matthias were seen as tainted after that and ended up fleeing their home waters for somewhere more quiet to live, away from the schools that still believed in human curses. Matthias had been very young when they fled, but the memories were still vivid to Berwald, a piece of his heart had been left behind in their more southern home waters. Matthias had always been skeptical that humans had the ability to cast magic, and after meeting his human today, he was even more sure of the fact. Humans were not widely known to be magical creatures in recent history, and if his new human friend was anything to go by, they may be unaware of their powers if they even had them at all.

"What humans?" Berwald broke the tense silence at last, his voice barely making a song, his tone short and snipped. Matthias wished to retract his comment and hide in his bed of kelp, but Berwald was fully awake now, rising, his tail curling under him. "Did you see one?" Matthias debated lying, but knew his song would give him away; he was terrible at concealing what he truly felt.

"I met one today," he rose to sit up, curling his tail under himself, mirroring his brother's posture. "He was kind," he added quickly, chancing a glance at Berwald who had a frightening expression on his face.

"Stay away from humans." He knew his brother wanted to add a lecture about how they left their previous home in order to escape the poison humans had inflicted on their family, but he stayed his tongue. Matthias could sense it in the water, he didn't need it sung to him.

The question that was rattling in his head escaped his mouth before he could restrain it, "did our mother ever teach you to sing like humans?" Instead of replying, Berwald burrowed back into his own nest, twisting so his back was facing Matthias. The gills on his neck eventually relaxed into a steady rhythm and Matthias stopped waiting for an answer, settling back down into his own bed to rest. His eyes were finally drifting closed when, "humans don't sing. They _speak_."

"How do you say, 'what is your name?'" He was wide awake, now. He _knew_ their mother had taught Berwald a few things about humans. She had been so close to them as a fry, her passion for curiosity never truly leaving her, even after being 'cursed'. Matthias had been too young to learn before their father had died and she slid into madness. She had always taught them that there was good to be found in humans – until she told them there wasn't.

" _Hva heter du,_ " it was strange to hear such short, sharp sounds coming from his brother's mouth. It sounded peculiar in the water, it reminded Matthias of the sound rain makes when you swim close to the surface of the water in stormy weather. He repeated the words quietly to himself, struggling to keep the song from them and warping the meaning. Berwald sighed heavily and turned his head to face him, his eyes lighting up the small cavern.

"Go to sleep, 'Thias. I have to rise early to hunt."

.

The morning song came sooner than Matthias would have liked. He groaned and rolled further into his nest, burying his face in the sponge in a feeble attempt to block out the noise. A rough hand on his shoulder hauled him into a sitting position and he blinked blearily at his brother.

"Y'should have rested instead of asking silly questions about _humans_."

Outside in the great hall, a small group of mermaids were slowly drifting around the perimeter, singing a song of awakening to signal the beginning of a new day, feeding the jellyfish and encouraging them to glow brighter and rise back up towards the ceiling. The ones with Gift touched glowstone lanterns, lighting them, as they passed. Eventually, the whole cavern was lit, twinkling like the sun was shining down into it, sleepy mer slowly poking their heads out of their sleeping caves and preparing to face the day.

A group of hunters were gathering at the far end near the crack, sharpening spears and laughing as they waited for their entire group to assemble. They broke their morning meal together, playfully fighting for the best parts of a prepared salmon wrapped in edible seagrass. There were young fry already racing around the hall, playing tag and chasing the jellies that were still lingering closer to the cavern floor.

Berwald dropped a hand to Matthias' shoulder as they exited their small cave, looking out on the small community of merfolk.

"Behave yourself, today," Berwald sang under his breath, his pale blue eyes glancing down to give Matthias a meaningful look that clearly said, ' _stay away from the surface and humans_ '. Matthias nodded and grinned.

"I always stay out of trouble!" He reached for a satchel he kept weighted to the cave floor by the door and slung it over his shoulders, depositing rocks from inside where he found it. He flicked his tail and raced across the cavern, dodging jellies and small fry as he made his way for the hall crack that would lead him out into the open fjords, away from his brother and his song of warning chasing after him.

Of course, the first thing Matthias did was swim straight for the surface, popping up over the waves near where he had found his human. He kept low in the water, careful to avoid any wandering human eyes that may spot him in the early morning mist. He swam as close to the shoreline as he felt brave enough, scanning for any signs of his human friend.

There were none, it was probably too early for him to be seeing any humans this far from their homes.

He dove back into the water and made his way towards the depths. Today, he would scour for anything the humans dropped: garbage or trinkets, he would find a way to dispose of anything useless, the rest he would bring back to his school to sort through – especially interesting things he would keep for himself, the rest he would bring with him when he visited other schools and use for trade.

Before he got too deep, however, he heard the faint sound of wood bumping on rocks. He cast his gaze upwards, back towards the surface and shoreline, slowly rising until his eyes resurfaced in the open air. The boat his human friend had been in was bumping along the shore, rocking against two rocks standing proud in the water, trapping it. He made his way towards it, the water was shallow and he pressed his tail into the soft dirt, pushing himself up and out of the water in order to peek inside.

The boat was empty save for two pieces of human shell, pieces that covered the ends of their tails that they used to walk on land with. He gingerly plucked them from the boat and cradled them against his chest. ' _Humans do not have tails_ ', he reminded himself as he pushed them into his satchel, ' _they have feet._

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 _To be continued..._


End file.
